The cell at Hampton Roads Regional Jail where 24-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell was found dead August 19, 2015. He had been charged with theft and was awaiting trial. Another inmate now inhabits the cell.

The cell at Hampton Roads Regional Jail where 24-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell was found dead August 19, 2015. He had been charged with theft and was awaiting trial. Another inmate now inhabits the cell.

The cell at Hampton Roads Regional Jail where 24-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell was found dead August 19, 2015. He had been charged with theft and was awaiting trial. Another inmate now inhabits the cell.

Help was ordered, but time ran out for Jamycheal Mitchell, found dead in jail cell

The cell at Hampton Roads Regional Jail where 24-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell was found dead August 19, 2015. He had been charged with theft and was awaiting trial. Another inmate now inhabits the cell.

The cell at Hampton Roads Regional Jail where 24-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell was found dead August 19, 2015. He had been charged with theft and was awaiting trial. Another inmate now inhabits the cell.

The cell at Hampton Roads Regional Jail where 24-year-old Jamycheal Mitchell was found dead August 19, 2015. He had been charged with theft and was awaiting trial. Another inmate now inhabits the cell.

PORTSMOUTH

Before Reginald Morst ever met Jamycheal Mitchell, he was aware of him – his screams made him hard to ignore.

"Everyone in the jail knew of him," said Morst, who could hear Mitchell through the vents in his cell at Hampton Roads Regional Jail. "He was always in his cell screaming."

From the time Mitchell was arrested in April for stealing a Snickers bar, a 2-liter Mountain Dew and a Zebra Cake, worth about $5 in all, until his death at the jail four months later, doctors, lawyers, social workers, jail staff, clerks and judges touched his life, as records obtained by The Virginian-Pilot show.

The decisions many of them made contributed to his incarceration. The many decisions not made contributed to his inability to get the mental health services he needed.

"I don't know all the details yet, but what I have heard, it sounds like bureaucratic inertia at every level at its worst," said Democratic state Sen. Creigh Deeds, an advocate for mental health care reform in Virginia. "I think the jail, the hospital and the clerk's office all had a role here. I'm not sure who made the mistakes, but this young man slipped through the cracks."

According to Mitchell's court file, a judicial order to send him to Eastern State Hospital, a mental health facility, was mailed to the hospital May 27. A hospital spokeswoman said that for privacy reasons, she could not reveal when, or whether, it arrived. But Mitchell's wait ended Aug. 19 with his death.

At least four agencies are investigating the incident: Portsmouth police, the jail, the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services and the Office of the State Inspector General.

The Inspector General's Office would not confirm their investigation, but Newport News Sheriff Gabe Morgan, who heads the regional jail's board, said the office contacted him about an investigation.

"We have a larger issue of dealing with mental health in the commonwealth." Morgan said. "It's unfortunate that this young man lost his life. The staff here, in my opinion, has done the best they could do under the circumstances."

Morst's job at the jail was to hand out meal trays. He saw Mitchell nearly every day in the weeks before his death.

Mitchell would eat, Morst said, but he wasn't doing well. He said Mitchell would spend much of his time standing at the window of his cell naked, with feces on his walls and urine on the floor.

"Every day, he received a tray," Morst said. "He got a Styrofoam tray because sometimes he wouldn't give them back."

In an interview Monday, jail officials said that they did everything they could to care for Mitchell and that he needed to be in a mental hospital, not in jail.

"The jail seems to be raising certain excuses, that they are not set up for providing mental health services," said Mark Krudys, the Mitchell family's lawyer. "To me, that is almost more of an admission than an excuse."

After his arrest April 22, Mitchell was sent to Portsmouth City Jail with bail set at $3,000.

Seven days later, Portsmouth General District Judge Morton Whitlow ordered that Mitchell be assessed for participation in the city's jail diversion program, which is for arrested suspects with mental illness. If Mitchell qualified and agreed to participate, he would receive mental health services and be released.

Whitlow also ordered a psychological evaluation for Mitchell and apparently revoked his bond, which was never reinstated. General District Clerk Jody Davis provided a copy of the file but said she could not discuss the case.

On May 11, Mitchell was transferred to Hampton Roads Regional Jail. Medical records from the jail provided by Krudys show that Mitchell was immediately placed on suicide watch.

"Alert, oriented, cooperative to an extent," say the handwritten notes in the records. "Rambling speech."

His cell was to be searched every shift, and he was allowed to have only a safety smock, mattress, blanket and shower shoes.

Dr. Evan Nelson, a clinical psychologist, performed the evaluation May 20 and determined Mitchell needed hospitalization.

"He was both manic and psychotic," Nelson wrote. "Mr. Mitchell's thought processes were so confused only snippets of sentences could be understood."

On the fax cover sheet to Whitlow, Nelson wrote, "Prepare treatment order ASAP."

Whitlow ordered Mitchell to be treated at Eastern State on May 21, the day he received the fax. It took a week to get Mitchell's public defender and the Commonwealth's Attorney's Office to sign off on it, according to a timeline of events found in Mitchell's file.

Brenda Spry, head of the Portsmouth Public Defender's Office, said she could not talk about Mitchell's case because of attorney-client privilege. She did say she believed Mitchell received treatment comparable to others with similar problems in the criminal justice system.

"My gut instinct is that Mr. Mitchell wasn't treated any differently than anyone else," she said. "The system is just kind of broke."

The order to restore Mitchell to competency was mailed to Eastern State on May 27.

Maria Reppas, communications director for the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, said the state agency that runs the hospital could not say when it received the order because the request falls under federal privacy laws.

She said court orders come to the hospital in many ways. In some jurisdictions, they come from the commonwealth's attorney, while others come from the defense attorney, court clerk or jail. How the orders are transmitted to the hospital – by fax or mail – also varies.

The Virginian-Pilot has previously reported that the hospital had no room for him.

Also on May 27, Mitchell was denied access to the jail diversion program. He qualified, wrote case manager Ronald Scott, but Mitchell had refused the services when he was interviewed for the program in April.

"He mentioned he would like to receive his services in Virginia Beach," Scott wrote. "Mr. Mitchell states he is not on medication in jail at this time."

It was a lost opportunity for Mitchell to get out of jail and receive the treatment he needed.

Another opportunity would not come in time.

Morst said that when he first started working near Mitchell's cell, he would hear him crying out. He also said

Mitchell had no mattress or clothes, and there was feces on the walls.

Jail officials said Mitchell was always provided with a security garment that "promotes inmate safety and prevents humiliation and degradation."

Justin Dillon, another inmate who worked inside the jail, said he never saw Mitchell with clothes.

"He just didn't belong in HRRJ. He didn't know what he was doing or what he was saying," Dillon said. "To me, he got mistreated."

Dillon said that Mitchell was never allowed to take a shower and that he saw jail staff members squirt a water bottle in his face and kick him.

Jail officials deny the allegations of abuse.

"When you opened his slot, you smelled this horrific smell," Morst said. "It was like walking in the forest after something had died."

Morst said he started distributing meal trays about a month before Mitchell died. He was struck by the swelling in one of Mitchell's legs, which got worse over time.

Mitchell's medical records indicate jail staff had concerns about his health, as well.

On July 30, Mitchell was taken to Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center in Portsmouth. Doctors noted he had swelling in both feet.

He was released after a few hours.

The following day, Mitchell was assessed by the local Community Services Board, Morgan said.

The board can determine whether an inmate needs to be immediately taken to a mental hospital by a temporary detention order, said Annette Miller, a public defender in Virginia Beach who has handled severe mental health cases for nearly 20 years.

Lt. Col. Eugene Taylor III, the assistant jail superintendent, said he could not say why the board was called because of federal privacy laws.

The board did the assessment but didn't request a temporary detention order. Mitchell went back to jail.

Miller said a temporary detention order can be issued only if an inmate is a danger to himself or others.

"Typically, a good example of danger to self is someone head-butting themselves against a wall, and they have to stick them in a restraint chair, something no jail wants to do," she said.

Outside jail, a temporary detention also can be ordered if someone can't care for himself.

But that criterion does not apply to someone in jail because it is assumed the jail can care for him, Miller said.

On the same day as the assessment, a General District clerk called Eastern State to follow up on the status of getting Mitchell a bed, according to the timeline in Mitchell's court file. The treatment order was then faxed to the hospital, nearly two months after it had been mailed, according to the notes on the file.

About a week before Mitchell died, Morst said, he cleaned Mitchell's cell. After nearly retching when he first entered, he said, he cleaned the feces off the walls and bleached the vents. He then got Mitchell a mattress and a clean smock with the help of jail employees.

"Nobody really wanted to deal with him," he said.

On Aug. 19, Morst said, he noticed Mitchell wasn't moving when he looked into the cell. He told jail staffers, who tried to revive Mitchell.

The state Medical Examiner's Office has not released a cause of death.

Taylor said he can't discuss Mitchell's medical condition but said his cell was unsanitary at times and had to be cleaned. He and Morgan, the head of the jail board, said jail officials did all they could for Mitchell.

"There's a limit to what we can do, and that's our dilemma," Morgan said. "I've been trying to bring attention to that fact."

Jails can try to give inmates medications, but they can't force inmates to take them the way a hospital can.

"Certain treatments … are going to be available at Eastern State Hospital that aren't going to be available at a jail," Taylor said. "That's why they are court-ordered to a treatment facility."

Morst said Mitchell didn't have to die in jail, he just needed someone to fight for him.

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Gary Harki is an investigative reporter at The Virginian-Pilot. He was named the Virginia Press Association's Outstanding Journalist of the Year in 2017. He is currently a fellow at Marquette University's O'Brien Fellowship in Public Service Journalism.

Email

gary.harki@pilotonline.com

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